


Compulsory Bonding Activity

by Nautrielle



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Batman, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 02:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17194943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nautrielle/pseuds/Nautrielle
Summary: Dick spies a perfect opportunity during patrol, now all he has to do is get Damian on board.





	Compulsory Bonding Activity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [renecdote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/renecdote/gifts).



> This story is for the Batfam Christmas Stocking event on Tumblr, in particular from Renecdote’s stocking. The prompt was for Dick and Damian to build a snowman together while on patrol as Batman and Robin, and it was too cute an image for me to not write something!
> 
> Merry Christmas Renecdote!

There was no other way to describe what happened that night: it was a Christmas miracle.

“Robin! Stop!” Dick’s voice was an urgent bark down the coms. It was probably _too_ urgent, Dick thought guiltily as he watched Robin fumble with his grapple gun at the sound of his order. The boy had been about to swing on to the next building over, but now he looked back to where Dick had skidded to a stop behind him, a frown of concern on his face.

Robin’s eyes darted around, looking for the reason that Batman had called for a stop in their patrol. It was obvious from his tense stance that he was looking for a crime in progress, or an assailant of some kind, one of the usual things that caused them to stop while patrolling.

“Situation?” Damian demanded of Dick quietly, his eyes still roaming for the danger that he had missed. He had his hand on his sword hilt, ready to pull the blade at a moment’s notice.

It was at this point that Dick started to feel a bit foolish. He really should have been a bit nicer in asking Damian to hold up for a minute, but he had only had a split second to process what he was seeing mid-swing and come to a decision to stop, so his call to Robin had come out too quickly and it made his voice too stern.

“Batman?” Damian’s frown deepened, and Dick realized that he had waited too long to respond, and now Damian was even more worried. Some Batman he was turning out to be, making his Robin jump at shadows.

“Sorry Robin.” Dick said quickly. He let the Batman growl bleed out of his voice a little, hoping that it would let Damian relax a little. “I didn’t mean to alarm, there’s no immediate situation.”

Damian’s whole posture relaxed at Dick’s words, and the boy immediately let go of his sword hilt. The frown on his face, however, stayed.

“Then why are we stopping?” Damian wanted to know. “Our designated rest spot is not for another two miles.”

“I know,” Dick said. “But…” He pointed to the rooftop directly across the street from where they stood. It belonged to a small office building that stood sandwiched on both sides by buildings that were at least three or four storeys higher, and it was one of the rare Gotham buildings with flat roofs that didn’t have some sort of rooftop access door. “Look at that.”

Damian turned to look at the building that Dick was pointing to, his frown deepening into confusion. “What are we looking at?” His voice was flat and unimpressed.

“Snow.” Dick said, a small smile creeping across his face. Nobody was around, so it didn’t really matter too much if Batman smiled for a bit. “We’re looking at the Snow, little D.”

The frown had slipped into utter bafflement now, and Damian looked over to Dick with his nose scrunched up in incredulity. “Yes.” He said slowly. “That is snow. I have seen it before. It’s been snowing in this city for the past two weeks.” He sounded the words out carefully like he was under the impression that Dick was an imbecile.

Dick wanted to roll his eyes but the white lenses of the cowl meant that the expression would be totally wasted on Damian; the boy wouldn’t see it at all. Instead he had to settle for an exaggerated sigh and his hands placed lightly on his hips. “Yeah, but all of that snow has been stepped on and turned to slush.” Dick said seriously. “Or it fell somewhere dirty and instantly became mud.”

Damian twitched his hands upwards a little, asking a silent ‘ _…and?’_. “Of course.” He said bluntly. “This city is filthy and has heavy foot traffic. That is what happens to snow in the city.”

Dick pointed again to the rooftop. “Not _that_ snow.” He said. “It’s a building without rooftop access: _that_ snow is still pristine.”

“Amazing.” Damian said, sounding the exact opposite of amazed. “A true natural wonder. Can we go?”

Sometimes Damian acted like such a brat it was hard to remember that he wasn’t a normal child at all. Childlike instincts that Dick remembered in vivid detail from his own younger days didn’t have any place in the mind of the young ex-assassin. The obvious reason for stopping at the sight of untouched snow did not occur to Damian Wayne, and it was up to Dick to give him the nudge.

“Nope.” Dick said. “There’s a rule, you see.”

“A rule?” It was definitely a bit mean of him to tease Damian like this. There was an unsure expression on his face, a wariness that came from a lifetime of strict and bloodthirsty rules that dictated every aspect of his life. Damian might constantly go against orders and rebel like a little brat, but deep down he was just a self-conscious little boy that still clung to the rules laid down by his mother. He might have discarded many league rules, like using lethal force, but other rules still held a tight grip on him, and no matter how hard he might want to break them it was still too difficult.

“Yup! Any and all pristine snow spotted _must_ be utilized to it’s fullest potential.” Dick told him. “And as two of the only people in the city who could actually get up to that rooftop, it’s our _duty_ to do something.”

“…do…something…?” Damian was looking at him like he was mad, but honestly Dick kind of expected that, so it was easier just to keep going.

“There’s not enough there for a snow ball fight.” Dick said. He looked appraisingly at the small square of snow available to them. “Maybe we could make snow angels…?” He shook his head the idea. If they made snow angels then the only people to see them would be those that could scale the buildings around the office. From street level, it would still look like the snow was untouched. Then the perfect idea came to him, and he beamed over at Damian. “Come on!” He said, pulling Robin flush to his side so he could grapple them both across the street. “I’m going to show you how to build a _snowman_.”

“A _what?_ ” Damian spluttered. “Grayson! Unhand me!”

“Names!” Dick reminded him with a joyful grin. “Now come on! Compulsory bonding activity!” They landed on the roof together, boots sinking into the clean snow.

“Tt.” It was the usual huff of disapproval that Damian always gave, but the boy knew better than to try and talk his way out of a bonding activity.

“This is going to be _fun!_ ” Dick announced.

* * *

 

Dick was scrolling through Instagram over breakfast the next day when he saw it. A photo tilted upwards and zoomed in as far as possible of two small figures perched on the edge of one of Gotham’s many rooftops. The figure on the right was the larger of the two, with black gravel eyes and pointed ears sculpted to the top of its head. A black garbage bag snapped in the breeze around it as a makeshift cape, and a batarang was pressed into its chest. To the left stood the shorter figure, also with gravel eyes and a garbage bag cape. A hood made of a third garbage bag covered the smaller figure’s head, and a small shuriken in the shape of an ‘R’ was pressed onto the left-hand side of the figure’s chest.

The picture was captioned with a mixture of emojis and words. _Look what I saw on the way to work this morning! Batman and Robin! Looking a bit frosty there boys!_

Dick smiled and saved the picture to his phone. Maybe Damian would like to see it later. At any rate it was _definitely_ going into the scrapbook.


End file.
